[Avodah] Assur to be Stupid

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Dec 17, 2009 at 05:11:24PM -0500, Richard Wolberg wrote:
: It should be pointed out that the word "stupid" is being used as
: "ignorant."
...
: "Stupid" on the other hand means "lacking common sense" and doing
: things that are associated with lacking common sense....

Unlike Cantor Wolberg's take, I understood RYBS as stating that there
is an implied prohibition against not using the intelligence G-d gave
you. Recall, the context in which he spoke was someone asking him about
bowing to the mat at a judo class. It wasn't a lack of information
involved, but rather RYBS felt that bowing to an inanimate object
demonstrated a lack of common sense.

That said, what would RYBS do with the Chazal that says that Aharon was
Hashem's vehicle for initiating the first three makos because Moshe
Rabbeinu had to demonstrate hakaras hatov to the Nile (for hiding him as
an infant) and to the sand (for hiding the Egyptian's body) and thus it
would be wrong for him to initiate makos dam, tzefardei'a and kinim.

Is it that different to have an excercise in hakaras hatov by bowing to
the mat which is about to save you much pain?

I also assume this means RYBS only discusses covering the chalah on
Shabbos lezeikher the frost atop the mon, and nothing to do with
respect for the staff of life while making qiddush first.


This might tie into RYBS's general attitude of "there is no ritual in
Judaism", nothing we do to "feel good" or have religious experiences.
Everything is rooted in halakhah. (Thus, the "Halakhic Man".) Which
bacomes his model for minhag as well -- every minhag has to be patterned
after a mitzvah. This chiddush of RYBS's then motivated pesaqim WRT the
omer and the 3 weeks that are distinctly his, by fitting the steps of
aveilus we practice by the calendar to the actual dinim of aveilus when
ch"v someone passes away.

(I mentioned this recently when discussing R' Velvel's chiddush about
everyone holding that there is a berakhah on a minhag that involves
a "cheftza shel mitzvah", and the machloqes Rambam and Rabbeinu Tam
is over whether Chatzi Hallel qualifies as similar enough to Hallel.
Leshitas RYBS, every minhag has to have a cheftza shel mitzvah, so this
sevarah doesn't work.)

The tie-in between the ideas is that without halakhah, there is no
reason to practice haqaras hatov with inanimate objects; it becomes
"ritual" in this sense of the word.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             It is our choices...that show what we truly are,
micha at aishdas.org        far more than our abilities.
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